Planning Manager

With over 17,000 employees worldwide, the Microsoft Customer Experience & Success (CE&S) organization is responsible for the strategy, design, and implementation of Microsoft’s end-to-end customer experience. Come join CE&S and help us build a future where customers come to us not only because we provide industry-leading products and services, but also because we provide a differentiated and connected customer experience.

The Experience Strategy, Services, and Operations (ESSO) organization is leading the effort to create the desired customer experience through support offer creation, driving digital transformation across our tools, and delivering operational excellence across CE&S.

As a Planning Manager in the Operations Planning Centre [OPC] of BO&P, using your in-depth experience of short, medium & long-range planning, you will build robust requirement plans for our Vendors/Inhouse to schedule resources against to ensure customer experience is optimal. This is a challenging role as Microsoft is a complex organization with many languages to support, sites, vendor, and pricing models. This year, we are expanding into other business units, so a strong level of change management and high influencing skills are essential. You will be required to support your colleagues with this expansion through sharing your planning expertise.

Do you have proven experience of generating exact forecasts down to a 30-minute interval level using industry Standard Workforce Management tools, but can also work it out manually if needed? Do you have an in-depth knowledge of industry standard planning methodology with at least 10 years’ experience of planning for large-scale multi-modality contact centres? If so, this role is for you

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

**Responsibilities**:

- Designing and delivering modernised industry ‘best in class’ resource planning services to our global Customer Services and Support SBU’s. Utilising leading tools & processes which drive efficient staffing, resulting in SLA attainment and high customer satisfaction.
- Oversee and validate forecasting outputs, ensuring labour laws & vendor contracts are adhered to & flag risks.
- Continuously improve E2E planning and tooling capabilities whilst driving industry standard outputs.
- Ensure all decisions are aligned to budget expectations, and advise of risk, whether that be to budget or customer experience, through a robust monthly decision-making forum. Aligning all stakeholders from Operations Managers through to Senior Director level.
- Propose & influence strategic resource changes to drive efficiency and/or to mitigate risk.
- Act as an SME to ensure appropriate knowledge share with other departments & vendors.
- Supplying performance analysis to continually drive positive outcomes.
- Implementing changes to support the constantly evolving support environment.
- Direct a team of outsource Analysts.

**Qualifications**:
**Qualifications**

**Required/Minimum Qualifications**
- Bachelor's Degree in Business, Operations, Finance or related field AND 6+ years work experience in program management, process management, process improvement
- OR equivalent experience.
- Business level fluency to read, write and speak English
- At least 10 years' of workforce and scheduling management experience, with a strong working knowledge of multi-site contact centre operations and job functions

**Preferred Qualifications**:

- Have worked in 24*7 Contact Centre Operations
- Must be flexible in accommodating stakeholders in varying timezones.
- Must have considerable experience in generating requirements in a variety of vendor billing units.
- Understanding and working knowledge of contact centre resource calculation methods.
- 5 years' experience in managing vendors/direct team to achieve results.
- Ability to work independently in a high productivity and time sensitive environment, proven organisational skills and attention to detail.
- Elevated level of accuracy and flexibility in work assignments, producing a high volume of work promptly, never sacrificing quality of work for quantity of work..
- Ability to manage high pressure situations.
- Change agent: natural at embracing change and leading people through ambiguity and transformation.
- Ability to influence leadership based on data and business needs.
- Flexibility and ability to adapt to ambiguous and changing situations.
- Strong customer service, communication, and interpersonal skills..

CES #ESSO